HIGH SCHOOL HOCKEY: Notre Dame blanks South en route to MCT final

WEST WINDSOR — Notre Dame has not lost a game to a Colonial Valley Conference team since the finals of the 2011 Mercer County Tournament.

As the winning steak continues to grow, so does the pressure.

Connor McNamara wouldn’t have it any other way.

McNamara sparked the Irish to a 6-0 win over West Windsor-Plainsboro South on Wednesday in the semifinals of the Mercer County Tournament at Mercer County Park.

The Irish, who are the topseed and defending champions, will meet Robbinsville for the title. The game is set to begin at 5:30 p.m. at Mercer County Park on Friday.

“We’ve had these two undefeated years, and it’s been great,” said McNamara. “We just want to go out and work hard every game. Every game is a challenge because we know every team is capable of beating us and it’s awesome to get a chance at a repeat.”

South (9-9-2) was the fifth seed and now will look toward Friday’s state tourney game when Parsippany Regional invades MCP at 3:15 p.m.

“In the first period we did what we needed to do,” said South coach Laurent Lassance. “We got away from our game plan in the second period and we got a little undisciplined.”

South’s hopes were bolstered by a great game in the net by Karl Stafford, who continually frustrated the Irish. Stafford had 43 saves.

ND kept the pressure on and scored a pair of goals in each period.

“They played hard and they are a good team,” said ND coach Andrew Ducko. “Our guys played a little better. A lot of these guys have been in these situations before and they like the big games.”

The Irish got two from McNamara, two from Mike Adams, along with single scores from Dakota Skove and Jamie Shuttner. Mike Anderson was picture perfect between the pipes for ND, tossing the shutout. Anderson turned away 19 South attempts.

The Irish took advantage of South’s miscues, getting three of their first four goals on the power play. Skove got the scoring started and McNamara followed to give them a 2-0 early lead.

It’s huge for us to get the early goal,” said Ducko, “but we fight hard at the end when we have our backs to the wall. South was a team that fought to the end and that was huge.”

Shuttner and McNamara got the Irish a 4-0 lead at the end of the second period and, if not for the play of Stafford, it might’ve been a deeper hole.

“We came out hard and we didn’t take South for granted,” said McNamara. “We worked every shift. We played it like they could be us. We are working really well together as a team.”

The Irish have taken on all challengers and now stand just one win away from their second straight Mercer County Championship.